Considering there are less than 30 of these you are probably going to have a hard time getting one since they may not be in the forums at all. I know 2 aren't for sure.

Before you spend a ton of time here, and not saying you didn't do this already, but if you haven't surveyed for 4+ story occupied buildings in your district and come up with 50-100 of them then you might want to make sure there aren't any other vehicles you would actually be competitive for. In Rural Quint is the lowest priority truck behind pumper, tanker, and brush so anyone asking for those has a slight step up on you.

Plus just remember that less than 120 trucks awards over $300K have been given out in the last 6 years. 4 pumpers to 4 communities holds greater benefit, so large $ trucks have to be dead on with all points of assessments and arguments or it won't see the light of Peer.

Brian is Right, Guys!

BC79er, or Brian the Brain to most of us here, is one-thousand (1,000) percent correct in what he is telling both of you here, and he should know! Please study the advice that he is giving to the the two of you just as closely as you would the Program Guidance itself; that is, line-by-line. We don't call him "The Great Cyber-Wizard" for nothing. I'm in total agreement with his thoughts and recommendations. He's earned them, with probably tens of thousands of hours of study and analysis of this grant program on his own; with both his own computer analysis and his own prodigious brainwork involved in the effort.

Over the past several years, he and I have had a very mild and light-hearted disagreement here over the merits of looking at another's quint narrative; he thinks that it's unwise and a waste, whereas I've thought that it's a minor help in getting kick-started on one's own narrative, if not overdone.

Along the way, I've seen a wide range of different narratives get awarded- but with each one different from the next, and others get rejected when they looked like they couldn't miss. So, Brian's right about that. However, I've seen many winners that did have common elements in them, and that is what I posted in another thread on 'vehicles' several pages back on this AFG forum.

If you really want to read any narratives of others, however, I think that you will have to seek them out yourself, as I had to in years past, rather than just posting your e-mail address, and expecting others to do your work for you. This is ment as a helpful hint to you, and not a chiding or anything else. Just a fact of life, so to speak.

I do shudder, though, at the idea that everyone can now make a request for both apparatus and operations/equipment. I think that this will open up a can of worms, in that many too many apparatus apps will clog the system- apps that aren't critically needed, but only wanted. And nearly every department in the Country wants a 75' quint, it seems. I think that if you really, really need a quint as your primary need, as in the past, then that by itself will compell you to make a narrative effort strong enough to possibly see an actual but rare award.

Good luck. I'm all for you both, but your real chance for a quint, in my opinion, will come from doing what Brian has suggested. And if you want to see just a few common selling points of quint apps from the past, you could look at the thread that I referred to above.

BC79er, or Brian the Brain to most of us here, is one-thousand (1,000) percent correct in what he is telling both of you here, and he should know! Please study the advice that he is giving to the the two of you just as closely as you would the Program Guidance itself; that is, line-by-line. We don't call him "The Great Cyber-Wizard" for nothing. I'm in total agreement with his thoughts and recommendations. He's earned them, with probably tens of thousands of hours of study and analysis of this grant program on his own; with both his own computer analysis and his own prodigious brainwork involved in the effort.

Over the past several years, he and I have had a very mild and light-hearted disagreement here over the merits of looking at another's quint narrative; he thinks that it's unwise and a waste, whereas I've thought that it's a minor help in getting kick-started on one's own narrative, if not overdone.

Along the way, I've seen a wide range of different narratives get awarded- but with each one different from the next, and others get rejected when they looked like they couldn't miss. So, Brian's right about that. However, I've seen many winners that did have common elements in them, and that is what I posted in another thread on 'vehicles' several pages back on this AFG forum.

If you really want to read any narratives of others, however, I think that you will have to seek them out yourself, as I had to in years past, rather than just posting your e-mail address, and expecting others to do your work for you. This is ment as a helpful hint to you, and not a chiding or anything else. Just a fact of life, so to speak.

I do shudder, though, at the idea that everyone can now make a request for both apparatus and operations/equipment. I think that this will open up a can of worms, in that many too many apparatus apps will clog the system- apps that aren't critically needed, but only wanted. And nearly every department in the Country wants a 75' quint, it seems. I think that if you really, really need a quint as your primary need, as in the past, then that by itself will compell you to make a narrative effort strong enough to possibly see an actual but rare award.

Good luck. I'm all for you both, but your real chance for a quint, in my opinion, will come from doing what Brian has suggested. And if you want to see just a few common selling points of quint apps from the past, you could look at the thread that I referred to above.

-CptnMatt

CptnMatt, I applaud your GALLANT response. I like to read, study and learn. This is why I've asked for other narratives. I'm guessing you don't have one, so I guess there is truly no need for you to even offer a response.

And there's nothing wrong with wanted to read study and learn, I've read well over 10,000 applications to figure out what I have. But it has to be done the right way which is part reading between the lines not on them. It takes practice, which I've had from years of dealing with people writing software. Actually quite a common connection there, they know what they want they just don't know why. Finding out what you need and why before you go looking around is the key to success. That's the reason I had my keyboard involved in 4% of the award money from 2006 AFG. $22 million out of $27 million. I'm not out here spewing stuff for my health, in fact it's the exact opposite because the more time I spend here the later to bed if it is for me. Brain break. But I digress.

One of the major themes I found when people try to read narratives they swear they're just in it to learn, but then the first thing they do is take other people's reasons for wanting/needing something so the reasoning conveyed in the application was highly transparent. My main message is/was if you don't do the analysis on your own department first then you don't know what you're looking for in other people's narratives. What they said is not important. WHY they said it is. I've seen so many apps where people can't explain why their community needs an aerial. Anyone can tell you why a quint/aerial is important to have, the grant needs to know why YOU need it and most importantly why haven't you bought it yet. You're not going to get that from anyone else's narrative until you know why you need it.

Once you know where you are (Point A) only then can you go somewhere else (Point B) based on what you've learned. Plus I hate to see people limit themselves to successful narratives. The narrative was only the last part, making sure that it was the right project for the department based on the numbers is the first part. You have to need an aerial based on the statistics first, and only an assessment will tell you that, not anyone else's narrative.